Two Days in Tokyo

We were both rather excited about our second trip to Japan - our first trip had left quite an impression on both of us. This time, we were planning to spend most of our trip in Kyushu, the southern-most of Japan's main islands. But before heading south, we had a couple of days to spend in Tokyo.

After picking up our luggage and withdrawing some cash, we jumped on the train and headed for our hotel, which was located in the Kodenmacho district (quite near to the main train station of Tokyo). Our hotel room was pretty much as expected: minimalist, clean and functional (one can't really expect more than that for the 60 euros we were paying per night). After dropping of our luggage, we headed out straight away to start exploring Tokyo. (stopping at a subway station to grab a quick noodle lunch - amazing value for money at about 4 euros a head!).

We took the underground to Shinjuku, from where we decided to walk down to  Yoyogi-Koen, one of the main parks of Tokyo. Shinjuku in many ways gives a pretty good overview of what Tokyo has to offer: there are huge shopping centres, skyscrapers, neon-signs, loads of restaurants, bars and loads of people. But it's more a place to visit in the evening, so we didn't linger, and headed to Yoyogi-Koen. The main sight in Yoyogi-Koen is Meiji-Jingu, the most famous Shintoist Shrine in Tokyo. It is clearly an important place for people here in Tokyo - as testified by the huge amounts of people here. We were lucky enough to catch a wedding here as well - quite a photogenic little ceremony, with people dressed in traditional wear and so forth...

We were disappointed not to witness and Cos-Play-Zoku at Jingu-Bashi (a bridge leading into the park). Cos-Play-Zoku is Japanese for Costume Play Gang - the phenomenon basically involves youngsters getting together and dressing up in a funny or original way - and begging to be immortalized on photo ;-). Unfortunately, seems that there was no Cos-Play-Zoku here this particular Sunday... From there we headed into Omote-Sando, one of the main shopping streets of Tokyo (sometimes called the Champs Elysee of Tokyo). A shopping heaven for some people, I'm sure ;-). Anyways, I think shopping in Japan is quite entertaining even for a totally fashion-immune person like myself - there is just so much weird/funny stuff on display that it's just impossible to get bored. We also found some pretty cool streets just off Omote-Sando, with funky cafes and bars (and some people that probably classify as Cos-Play-Zoku people as well, who seemed quite happy to pose for photos!).

After this distinctly Tokyoite experience, it was time for us to head for Ueno park, where we had a rendez-vous with our good friend Matsuoka, whom we were meeting for dinner. Actually meeting up with Matsuoka-san turned out to be quite a challenge (I had difficulty decrypting the underground station names Matsuoka was trying to patiently spell out to me) - anyway to cut a long story short, we eventually manage to meet up at Ueno park. He took us to a nice Yakitori place, like he did during our last visit to Tokyo. We were, as always, most impressed with the food. Yakitori is basically a restaurant that serves grilled meat on skewers. We were treated to more or less all the parts of the pork one can eat (I particularly enjoyed the rectum!). Naturally, quite a few beers were downed as well as we were catching up with Matsuoka. Great to see him again!

After a good night's sleep (we'd managed to stay up all day, so fell asleep pretty much straight away), we got up bright 'n early and headed to southern Tokyo, for a very particular reason. Basically, I had to get my driver's license translated into Japanese, to be able to hire a car later on in Kyushu, which has to be done at the JAF office, which was where we were headed. Before getting the translation done, we had time for a quick visit of Zojo-Ji - a rather impressive temple (it was actually the "family temple" of the Tokugawas - a family of emperors from the Edo-Period).

We also took the elevator up to the top of Tokyo Tower (measuring 339 meters - or 9 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower, by which it's quite clearly heavily inspired). The view from up there was rather impressive - I am guessing it would be even nicer at night time, with all the skyscrapers being lit up. We then dropped off my drivers license for translation, and headed back towards the town centre. The next stop was Akihabara - or Electronics city! This is THE place to get your latest gadget - I ended up buying a Cannon EOS 650D camera with a nice lens. I guess it's becoming a bit of a tradition for me - a new camera each time I go to Japan :D.

After a quick bento lunch in the sun, we continued our exploration of Tokyo by heading through Ueno park up to Yanaka. Yanaka is the proof that Tokyo isn't just skyscrapers, neon signs and hordes of humans. It's a real haven of peace in what is one of the busiest cities in the world. No skyscrapers in sight here - just small houses, residential streets. We really loved this part of Tokyo, with its pretty houses, small quirky shops, and slightly offbeat feel. The place had a slight "bo-bo" feel to it (a French expression, look it up on the internet ;-). After a nice, chilled out walk here, and a quick exploration of the famous graveyard that is located here, it was time for me to head back to pick up my translated driver's license. It all went smoothly (as things always go in Japan), and I was quite soon back a the hotel, translated driver's license in hand.

For dinner, we decided to head to Monjayaki-dori, a street on an artificial island in the bay of Tokyo, which is supposed to have about 80 restaurants serving monjayaki. We had some real challenges finding the place (finding places in Tokyo in general is quite tricky, especially since we don't master any of the three Japanese alphabets, but here we really struggled) - but thanks to some friendly locals, we eventually found the street. There was indeed ample choice - and we picked one restaurant more or less by random. The concept of monjayaki is basically that a kind of liquid batter is fried on a teppan (a kind of metal griddle, also used for cooking teppanyaki), and mixed with ingredients of your choice (we went for pork, some vegetables and prawn). You then basically eat the stuff off the teppan directly, with a spatula. Unsurprisingly, a real culinary experience, and delicious as well! Before heading off the hotel, we had a quick walk around Roppongi, which is a nice part of town night-time - with all the skyscrapers being lit up.

That brought an end to the first part of our trip - we were catching our flight to Kyushu early the next morning. What can I say about Tokyo ? A fantastic and fascinating place - there is just so much to see. We have barely scratched the surface - and loved every minute of it!